And the angel answered her …”For with God nothing will be impossible.” Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be unto me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her (Luke 1:35,37-38).
Through the stories of Elizabeth and Mary, we see the pattern for faithful worship: God speaks and blesses; we believe and worship. God initiates; we respond. God reveals; we rejoice.
Today, God continues to speak to us by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures that He has written through his servants like Luke. When we hear from God we are to believe and respond. We are to trust Him, obey Him, love Him and follow Him.
God blesses us in that everything we have—including life itself—is a gift from Him. In addition, He has blessed us with Jesus’ life and death in our place, so we can be forgiven of sin and transformed. He has blessed us with Jesus’ resurrection so we can have hope for eternal life. He has blessed us with the Holy Spirit so we can have power, guidance and comfort in the present life.
Anytime we are struggling with worshipping, we must focus on remembering who God is and what God has done. As we do, our new nature prompted by the Spirit begins to respond in worship echoing back the greatness of our great God. This is precisely what we see modeled by Elizabeth, Mary and John.
How is your worship? Do you trust God’s words and appreciate God’s blessings in your life? How have you responded to these gifts? {eoa}
Mark Driscoll is a Jesus-following, mission-leading, church-serving, people-loving, Bible-preaching pastor and the author of many books, including Spirit-Filled Jesus, which you can order here. He currently pastors The Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his family. For all of pastor Mark Driscoll’s Bible teaching, please visit markdriscoll.org or download the app. You can download a free devotional e-book from pastor Mark here.
Bill Wiese 
Chris Garcia 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer 
